Hosed RP3 with Streach

[Andyj9]

FYI -
Tried your firmware update - Raspberry PI 3 with the latest version of Raspbian (Stretch) installed.
Seem to be OK at first downloading and updating but then gave some errors about main not found, about 4 errors and quit. (Sorry - I closed the terminal session so do not have actual details)
Powered off my RP3 - and now, 100% NOTHING, I do have a power light in the front but the Ethernet never turns on and get zero display HDMI. It's dead...
Before all this I did see some lockups - may be I actually had a bad board to start with anyway.
Have you tested with the new Aug/2017 version of Raspbian?

Really hope I am the only one this happens to..

Andy Johnson
handyjohnson.com

[pelwell]

I'm sorry you seem to be having problems - partial updates can be fatal. I've not heard of similar issues being reported, so it could be something about your SD card, power supply or Pi (hardware faults are very rare, but not unheard of).

Your story makes me wonder how hard it would be to add a feature to rpi-update so it can run filesystem checks and try to install a self-consistent firmware and kernel on a card plugged into a Pi via a USB card reader. As it is now, you may be able to copy some user data off that way.

There should be no Raspbian/kernel dependencies severe enough to prevent a Pi from booting - the most I might expect is a missing feature or two. "Updating" to a firmware older than the first supporting that device can be fatal, at least on that device - anything will boot on an old enough Pi - but going forwards should always be safe. There are some hard kernel/firmware dependencies, although we try to avoid them, which is why rpi-update updates both at the same time.

[Andyj9]

FYI -
My RP3 is working now - the image was corrupted but when I re-imaged the SDCard everything started working again. When this happened, and from the screens (or lack of) that I was seeing - panic set in - Guess I have been spending to much time with my rooted android phones.. Thought a failed FW was on the RP board - finding out No not really, everything for Raspberry PI is on the SDCard so replacing will solve 99.9% of issues.
Also - thank you for your fast response - hope this is interesting read for others as well.

Andy